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Make your own Taco Seasoning at home in minutes with a few common pantry spices. It’s cheaper and tastier than store-bought, and you can easily customize it if you want to.
Recipe ingredients:
Ingredient notes:
- Cornstarch: This is a thickening agent found in store-bought packets. It’s totally optional.
Recipe tips and variations:
- To make tacos: Add 2 tablespoons of seasoning for every pound of ground meat. 2 tablespoons seasoning is equivalent to one packet of store-bought.
- Yield: This recipe makes ½ cup taco seasoning (without salt or cornstarch). Assuming 2 tablespoons of seasoning per pound of meat, the full recipe as written is enough taco seasoning for 4 pounds of ground meat.
- Storage: Store covered in a cool, dark place and use within 6 months.
Put your taco seasoning to work:
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Homemade Taco Seasoning
Make your own Taco Seasoning at home in minutes with a few common pantry spices. It's cheaper and tastier than store-bought, and you can easily customize it if you want to.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup chili powder
- 2 tablespoons ground cumin
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- salt
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional, see note 1)
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together chili powder, cumin, paprika, coriander, cayenne pepper, and salt to taste (I like 2 teaspoons). Whisk in cornstarch if desired.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Cornstarch: This is a thickening agent found in store-bought packets. It’s totally optional.
- To make tacos: Add 2 tablespoons of seasoning for every pound of ground meat. 2 tablespoons seasoning is equivalent to one packet of store-bought.
- Yield: This recipe makes ½ cup taco seasoning (without salt or cornstarch). Assuming 2 tablespoons of seasoning per pound of meat, the full recipe as written is enough taco seasoning for 4 pounds of ground meat.
- Storage:Â Store covered in a cool, dark place and use within 6 months.Â
Nutrition
Serving: 2teaspoonsCalories: 35kcalCarbohydrates: 6gProtein: 1gFat: 2gSaturated Fat: 1gSodium: 125mgPotassium: 202mgFiber: 3gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 2746IUVitamin C: 1mgCalcium: 44mgIron: 3mg
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Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
Should i add water to the meat?
Hi Tabitha, nope! – Meggan
Make ahead. Perfect blend, healthier and fresher than purchased alternative
Thanks Rhonda, so glad you like it! – Meggan
I just love this recipe. Don’t buy the packets any longer.
On your chili powder question!! One day my wife was getting ready for company and realized that she had no chili powder in the house for her recipe, so she asked if I would go get her some. I went to my supply of whole chiles in the pantry and took equal weights of all my chiles and put them in the food processor till they were small flakes and gave the blend to her. She says it is much better than any chili powder she ever bought.
Here are the chiles I included; Chile de arbol, Jalapeño, Serrano, Cascabel, New Mexico, Chipotle, Pasilla, Ancho, y Japon.
This is my new go-to recipe for tacos; I make large batches, and freeze half to keep the seasonings tasting fresh.
Meggan: Thank you for your quick response. Your info to my question is very helpful. I will certainly look forward when you post your own chili powder recipe. Thank you again.
Darn,
I accidently unsubscribed!!!
Victoria, you are so sweet! Thank you so much! And yes I’ll get chili powder on the list… someone else asked about homemade adobo sauce so I’ll be doing that too. :) Happy New Year and thanks again!
I have a family member that is highly allergic to garlic. U unfortunately, garlic is a hidden item in many things, i.e. it might be listed as “seasoning”, which in most cases it includes garlic. I have learned that garlic could be one of the hidden ingredient in chili powder. Would you know of any chili powder brand that is “garlic free”. OR is there a replacement for chili powder that can be used in your taco seasoning recipe? Thanks
Hi Victoria! I will definitely work on a homemade chili powder. I did a search in Google and a lot of the blends I found don’t actually contain any kind of dried chilis at all… they are basically just tasty spice blends. And they all contain garlic, but you could definitely leave that out if you were making it. I trust Alton Brown, so here is a link to his (just omit the garlic). http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/abs-chili-powder-recipe-1943055
If you want something with less exotic chilis, you could try this one (and again omit the garlic): http://www.geniuskitchen.com/recipe/homemade-chili-powder-22859
Good luck Victoria!
Can you use Himalayan pink salt instead of Kosher?
Hi Jess, sure! The only potential issue I see is if you grind the pink Himalayan sea salt more finely than kosher salt, but you use the same quantity, your seasoning might be too salty. So just keep an eye on that! Here is a handy conversion chart about salt by size in case you can match up your pink salt grind. http://www.mortonsalt.com/article/salt-conversion-chart/ Thanks!
Why cornstarch? To thicken?
Yes, to thicken! You can easily leave it out. I always leave it out if I’m doing any kind of paleo/whole30 diet, just traditional store-bought packets have a thickener and that’s what I was trying to mimic with this recipe. Thanks for your question!
I love this recipe! It’s the perfect amount of heat and flavor! I omitted the cornstarch in mine, but I’ll have to try that next time!